Vincent and I talked and looked over the official record of his English class and talked about his two remaining projects – a somewhat vague critical essay and a multi-step research paper. We batted around some possible topics and Googled some possible sources, and then today I went to the public main library, University of Louisville Library, and Wild and Wooly video store to obtain books, articles, and DVDs connected with two possible topics: critical essay topic film adaptations of Beowulf, the “Knight’s Tale” from Canterbury Tales, and Romeo and Juliet. I dropped those by the house, picked up Vincent and the dog, and then Vincent dropped off job applications that he’d completed before and after he went to Ohio to four nearby businesses. Apparently, he’d been sleeping, watching the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet that I blogged about two weeks ago, working on his math class (he says he’s finished three of five sections), and eating leftover dessert from last night’s Crescent Hill church officer Oldham County meeting/gathering/potluck dinner (from one of the businesses, the bakery, where we stopped for him to drop off an application). He also picked up something to eat as we left the last business.
Stephanie called to say she might end up staying put in the Grand Ole Opry resort for the whole two days, where there was more social activity (meals, receptions, etc.) and keynote speeches associated with the conference, partly because the whole conference is put on by a company promoting its software. Stephanie said some of the sessions are more geared towards educators with experience using the software. Since she hasn’t used it in her classroom yet, these go a little over her head. She’s staying with another English as a second language teacher – middle school, I believe – but it doesn’t sound like she’s gone out that much with the other teachers.
I’m trying to get a little work done but head for more health care reform phone calling/canvassing – which is all the more daunting knowing what we already should have known from calling during the last few weeks and from those communications with friends – Many people are skeptical about health care reform, and the president’s poll numbers are really sagging, with his very unfavorable ratings skyrocketing – all the more so after Professor Gates-gate – especially among whites, especially among working-class whites (a good share of the people we’re contacting). 12 percent more likely voters have very unfavorable views of the president than have very favorable views, and 4 percent of likely voters now say, in general, they would vote for a Republican candidate for Congress, instead of a Democratic candidate. Democratic strategists believe as unemployment eases, these numbers will change, but there’s already a precedent where this did not happen (1994).
Frisco still seems to be lagging, as I continue to carry him occasionally during our walks, even when it’s not that hot (some of these is worse since he was sick and at the vet’s).
Mom remembered this week that it was 30 years ago Tuesday (by the date) that (with very little help from Penny and me, who were mainly off at a Latin conference in Michigan, but with lots of help from the folks at the United Church in Tallahassee, which she left a couple of years later) Mom bought and then moved from a house we’d lived in for three years in the Betton Hills neighborhood of Tallahassee, to the cheaper house on Greenwood Drive, where she’s lived ever since (and where all five of us have lived at one time or another). This was connected with my parents’ divorce, which was happening around the same time.
-- Perry
